Avoid burnout

Burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. It can occur when you experience long-term stress in your job, or when you have worked in a physically, or emotionally draining role for a long time. So, let’s start with the signs to look out for in yourself or others:

  • Feeling tired or drained most of the time.
  • Feeling helpless, trapped and/or defeated.
  • Feeling detached/alone in the world.
  • Having a cynical/negative outlook.
  • Self-doubt.
  • Procrastinating and taking longer to get things done.
  • Feeling overwhelmed.

Preventing burn out starts with taking care of yourself – learning to love yourself!

The good news is you can work on this yourself and there are massive health and wellbeing benefits. It’s not about being self-absorbed, selfish or narcissistic; practicing self-love can get you in touch with yourself, your wellbeing and ultimately your own happiness. Why wouldn’t you want to live a more positive and happy life?

Before a person is able to practice self-love, we need to understand what it means.  It’s a state of appreciation for oneself that grows from actions that support our physical, psychological and spiritual growth. Self-love means having a high regard for your own well-being and happiness and means taking care of your own needs and not sacrificing your well-being to please others. Not settling for less than you deserve.

We all have different ways to take care of ourselves and our mental health so finding out what self-love means for you personally is important as it’s different for different people.

Here’s a great article on what it can mean:

https://www.bbrfoundation.org/blog/self-love-and-what-it-means

Our favourites are :

  • Prioritising yourself
  • Giving yourself a break from self-judgement
  • Trusting yourself
  • Being true to yourself
  • Forgiving yourself when you aren’t being true or nice to yourself
  • Listen to your body, eating healthily, but sometimes indulge in your favourite foods
  • Take breaks from work and move/stretch.

Self-love motivates you to make healthy choices in life, when you hold yourself in high esteem, you’re more likely to choose things that nurture your well-being and serve you well.

Finally, to practice self-love have a look at these 30 ideas of ways to practice – choose 5 priority areas for you, that resonate with you now and set yourself some goals.

https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/30-ways-practice-self-love-and-good-yourself.html

Start by being kind, patient, gentle and compassionate to yourself, the way you would with someone else that you care about.

 

Here are some hints and tips to help prevent burn out:

Be open, transparent, and honest with each other – create an environment where people feel able to share when they see someone struggling. It is not always easy to approach someone who is suffering from burnout as they can’t always see this themselves. But done carefully and with heart, this can be a huge support for someone.

Watch your hours – it is too easy to creep into working far too many hours than is healthy for ourselves. Again, it helps if the team can be open about this and point out if they see someone working while ‘out of office’.

Focus on the right things – be careful that your attention is not straying away and that you don’t get distracted as you try to cram all the last-minute tasks in before you log off. It happens to all of us. I call it my spaghetti head! When I am under pressure, I find my focus jumps around and I become a bit scatty in my approach.

Take regular holidays – make sure you fully switch off

Delegate well – you don’t have to have a team to be able to delegate, you can outsource tasks as well.

Get support and ask for help – one of the characteristics of great leaders is vulnerability and knowing when to ask for help. It is not a weakness but a sign of real strength when people seek support.

Get regular exercise:

Take 15 minutes at lunch time and go for a quick walk and get some fresh air boost your vitamin D levels, if you can do this with a colleague and take a walk somewhere beautiful then that’s an added bonus.

Eat healthily:

A balanced diet is good for your body and mind – forget the processed food and refined sugar and dig out the soup maker from the back of your cupboard and make some healthy soups filled with vegetables and protein. Banish the cake and have a fresh fruit Friday in the office instead!

Meditation and mindfulness:

Not all of us are into meditation but if you are – go for it!  I prefer taking time out to walk through the countryside appreciating the delights of nature and looking for the signs of spring – I get so excited when I see the first snowdrops poking through or the hazel catkins – not to mention the first lambs I see out in the fields, it reminds me that there is a season for everything and spring is on its way.

Set yourself achievable goals or challenges: Give yourself something positive to work towards it may be walking 10000 steps a day, eating a healthy meal 5 times a week or learning a new skill. Put yourself outside your comfort zone, attend a training course or have coaching sessions (both of which we can help you with).  Or plan something adventurous and fun which you can look forward to – get those dates in your diary!

Be kind to yourself – love yourself: The relationship you have with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have. Make that time for you, give yourself permission to take the time to do things that bring you JOY!  And if you’re not sure what that is, make some time to explore that.

Stay Connected:

Spend time to connect with the people in your life that bring you joy – be it family or friends – make that time to see or speak to them – having a positive support network is greatly beneficial to supporting good mental health – so go ahead and phone a friend!

For more advice, contact your accountant or the organisation that gave you access to BuBul. They may offer help or refer you to someone they trust. If not, email hello@bubulexpert.com telling us what you need advice on, and we’ll connect you with one of our trusted experts*.

*Our experts don’t pay to be on BuBul, and they don’t pay us commission. They will offer you 30 minutes of free advice.